Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I find the Minister's amendment No. 56 particularly rich. I think it is distasteful and representative of this entire situation. It can be directly contrasted to amendments by me and others which sought to ensure that applications are processed in a timely manner. The Minister has insisted the deciding officer and staff administering the scheme are permitted to be given an open-ended timeframe to process applications. However, survivors making applications are requested to provide clarifications or evidence and they are limited to 60 days. To recap, the officials are permitted to non-defined, as-soon-practicable timeframes, whereas the applicants are given time limits after which if for whatever reason they cannot reach, their application will be deemed to be withdrawn. This disparity reveals the entire mindset of the Government and the Department, a mindset that survivors are aware of anyway, but it really paints it in black and white for everybody to see.

Fundamental and acute power asymmetry with a cruel State has defined survivors' lives. Young women were incarcerated for being pregnant. That is the only reason they were stigmatised and locked away. Babies were taken away from their mothers. Children were in essence sold or subjected to illegal medical experimentation. At the root of that was a twisted partnership between the church and State that sought to control, and abuse women and children. The very least that this scheme should do for those the Minister deems worthy of redress is to allow them the dignity of applying in their own time and if they need to take a bit longer he should accommodate that.

The scheme should be about including everybody, about helping people apply, about going at the pace of the people who have endured horrific abuse and lifelong stigma. Unfortunately, it is the exact opposite. The Minister spoke briefly about how 2,000 people have received their information under the birth information tracing legislation. Given that 6,000 people have applied, it leaves 4,000 who have applied and not received information, not to mention all the people it might not have reached and who might not be aware of it.

As this is one of the last groupings of amendments that we can speak to, I want to say this. This scheme is blatantly arbitrary and the Minister will know that an arbitrary scheme is an unconstitutional one. He cannot just randomly exclude people who spent less than six months in an institution. He cannot ignore racial abuse in institutions. He cannot ignore many things. Many people, including UN human rights experts and survivors have told him about that. This entire story has been one of underestimation. In the first instance, it is safe to say that the Minister underestimated the suffering people have experienced. I do not believe he knew the extent of it.

I think he underestimated the strength of feeling among the general public on this. Most importantly I think he underestimated the strength of survivors. In the last three years since taking office, I have had the privilege of meeting many people who went through these horrible institutions. I have rarely been so motivated or inspired by the strength of individuals and groups. It is quite incredible. The Minister underestimates them at his peril because when he produces a blatantly arbitrary piece of legislation like this, he will regret it as cases will be taken against it. At this late stage, and at this final hour, I think all we can say is change it now or he will see why he should have.

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